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Jets defeat NBN Select

The Newcastle Jets have defeated the NBN State League Select 2-1 in Wednesday night’s trial game at Adamstown Oval.

The Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets have defeated the NBN State League Select 2-1 in Wednesday night-s trial game at Adamstown Oval.

In their toughest test of the pre-season so far, the Jets had to come from a goal down to claim victory.
They fell behind inside the first 15 minutes after a mix-up at the back allowed Scott Petitt to put the NBN Select team ahead.

Mark Birighitti came out of his area to deal with through-ball, but hit his clearance into Josh Mitchell. The ball deflected off Mitchell over Birighitti-s head and into the path of Petitt who tapped the ball into an empty net.

The Jets responded well to the early set-back with both Ruben Zadkovich and Ryan Griffiths forcing the NBN Select goalkeeper to make sharp reflex saves in one on one situations.

However, despite having the lion-s share of possession the Jets were unable to find a way through the NBN Select defence and went into the half time interval trailing 1-0.

The Jets came out with renewed vigour in the second half and Zadkovich sent a warning sign of things to come when he rattled the crossbar with a powerful, dipping right-footed volley.

A short time later the Jets were back on level terms courtesy of forward Adam Taggart.

Jobe Wheelhouse played a deft ball through a crowded defence which Taggart latched onto and the 19-year-old calmly used the outside of his foot to dink the ball past the NBN Select goalkeeper to make it 1-1.

Minutes later, Zadkovich went close to putting the Jets ahead when he dipped a 25-metre free-kick over the wall and into the post.

The Jets made nine substitutions midway through the second half but the changes didn-t rob them of their momentum as they continued to put the NBN Select defence under pressure.

Eventually the Jets managed to breakthrough after some lovely interplay on the edge of the box between Connor Chapman and Marko Jesic allowed Chapman to carry the ball into the box.

He eluded some desperate defending from the NBN Select team before calmly finding the back of the net to make it 2-1 in favour of the Jets.

James Virgili nearly doubled the advantage in the dying minutes, but his shot was saved after he was played in behind by an exquisite through-ball from Mitch Cooper.